Kolten Wong homered twice among three hits and Adam Wainwright pitched seven strong innings as the Cardinals won 5-2 Thursday night in the rubber match of a three-game series against the Red Sox in St. Louis.

Wong scored three runs and Jhonny Peralta added two hits and two RBI for the Cardinals, who remained one game behind National League Central leader Milwaukee and a game behind San Francisco atop the NL wild card standings. Wainwright (14-6) struck out seven and allowed two runs and seven hits, Kevin Siegrist took care of the eighth inning and Pat Neshek pitched a perfect ninth for his third save a night after closer Trevor Rosenthal surrendered the go-ahead run.

Mike Napoli and Christian Vazquez knocked in runs for Boston, which has lost 12 of 15. Brandon Workman (1-5) lost his fifth straight start, allowing four runs and six hits over 5 1/3 innings with five strikeouts and two walks.

The Cardinals jumped on Workman early, as Peralta roped a two-out, two-run double to right-center in the first and came around to score on Oscar Taveras' RBI single for a 3-0 lead. Napoli and Vazquez delivered RBI singles in the third to trim the lead to 3-2, but Wainwright retired Jackie Bradley Jr. to end the rally.

Wong hit solo shots in the fifth and seventh -- the first multi-homer game of his career -- to pad the lead, and Wainwright sat down 11 straight batters. The Red Sox had two men on in the seventh before Wainwright struck out Yoenis Cespedes to end the inning, and Boston managed only one baserunner over the final two innings.

GAME NOTEBOOK: The start of the game was delayed one hour, four minutes because of rain, and Boston's David Ortiz, originally slated to start at first base without the DH, was scratched from the lineup because of the wet playing surface. ... Taveras stretched his hitting streak to seven games and has hit safely in every game since taking over the everyday job in right field when the Cardinals dealt Allen Craig to Boston. ... Bradley went 0-for-3 and is hitless in his last 27 at-bats.